Laura Benanti To Star In NBC's 'Playboy' And Other Pilot Castings

EXCLUSIVE: Tony-winning actress Laura Benanti is set to star in NBC’s drama pilot Playboy. The project, from 20th TV/Imagine TV, is set at the Playboy Club in Chicago in 1963. Benanti will play Carol-Lynne, a 30-year-old bombshell and an established star at the Playboy Club who knows that her days as a Bunny are numbered. Benanti, who won a Tony for Gypsy, co-starred on ABC’s Eli Stone and FX’s Starved. She is with Innovative and Brookside Artist Management.

Nancy Lenehan (Worst Week) has been cast in CBS’ comedy pilot How To Be A Gentleman, written by and starring David Hornsby. It revolves around a magazine that has changed ownership. Lenehan, repped by Pakula/King & Assoc. and Meghan Schumacher Management, will play Hornsby’s WASPy overbearing mother.

Tara Summers is set to co-star in the CBS drama pilot Ringer. The project centers on troubled young woman Bridget (Sarah Michelle Gellar) who, while on the run from the mob, hides out by inhabiting the life of her rich twin sister, Siobhan, until she learns that her twin’s life has a bounty on it as well. Summers will play Siobnah’s best friend.

Kevin McNally has boarded ABC’s pilot Poe, a crime procedural following Edgar Allan Poe, the world’s very first detective, as he uses unconventional methods to investigate dark mysteries in 1840s Boston. McNally will play the tough and authoritative Commissioner Kyle Kilpatrick.